Business

Saturday November 21, 2009

Tapping human capital


ONE of the main challenges that could cap the growth potential of the Malaysian economy is the lack of skilled human capital. This concern is not new and it has been raised many times over the years.

The most recent is by the World Bank, which says in its report that Malaysia’s education system has been a major hindrance for the country to move up the economic value chain as most graduates are ill-equipped for high-value work, particularly those that have been identified as new growth areas such as biotechnology.

Economic Planning Unit director-general Datuk Noriyah Ahmad concedes that human capital is a big issue for the country. Hence, the Government will be intensifying its efforts in dealing with the issue through various measures that will be implemented under the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP).

For one, there is the emphasis on reforming the country’s education system so that it can produce quality graduates. According to Noriyah, this reform will involve the Government’s effort to ensure that only quality teachers are employed.

“We want to make sure that our population is an asset to drive the economy,” Noriyah says.

She laments the fact that very few Malaysians pursue higher education. To date, it is estimated that a huge 80% of the country’s population are educated not higher than the SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia), or Secondary Five, level.

Thus, she sees the need for the country’s to move towards a binary system, whereby the higher education system will give priority to two main streams, namely, traditional academic and vocational/technical.

“We want to dispel the perception that those who are not academically-inclined are not smart,” Noriyah says, adding that the Government is looking at ways to encourage greater appreciation for the technically-inclined and will support the growth of the stream by building more facilities.

“We don’t want to waste our human resource; those who are not academically-inclined can pursue higher education in the vocational/technical stream to build specialised skills,” Noriyah says.

“We need to look for ways to up-skill our labour force because there is an urgent need to do so as we move up the value chain,” she adds.

In the meantime, the Government plans to review the country’s labour policies to promote job market efficiency under the 10MP and to attract skilled talent from abroad to meet the needs of new economic activities in the country.

It will also be introducing schemes to encourage women to join the workforce. At present, women are still under-represented in the country’s labour force. Their participation rate is only 47%, despite the majority of them being known to be more highly educated than men.

Indeed, it’s a major and long process to put the country’s human resources in order. But dealing with the issue seriously now is essential to move the economy up the value chain.

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